Food demand high at North Dakota's only food bank

North Dakota's only food bank experienced the second-highest demand in its 39-year history in 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic surged.

Great Plains Food Bank, based in Fargo, N.D., provided 12.6 million meals for those in need in 2021. The nonprofit organization helped 121,000 people, more than in any year before the pandemic, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

“What we learned from studying our numbers over the past year is that the need for food assistance remains extremely high,” food bank CEO Melissa Sobolik said. “Before the pandemic, we were serving around 100,000 individuals each year, and we know that many impacted by the pandemic are still needing our services.”

As the pandemic gathered steam in 2020, the food bank experienced record demand, providing food for 17.7 million meals for nearly 146,000 people.

The food bank is based in Fargo, with a distribution center in Bismarck. The organization distributes food to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other charitable feeding programs in more than 100 communities across North Dakota and into eastern Minnesota. About half of those communities are in the western two-thirds of North Dakota.

Hunger impacts 1 in 6 people in North Dakota, and 1 in 4 children in the state, according to the food bank.

The loss of the federal Farmers to Families Food Box Program last year contributed to the drop in the number of families served by the food bank. The federal program that ended in late 2020 brought more than 1 million pounds of fresh food to North Dakota each month that year.

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